DH and I enjoy eating out-rarely at super nice resturants, but we're not talking fast food. DD is 8 months old now and very much prefers to feed herself, but her accuracy isn't terribly great yet. I like that I actually get to eat much easier than when trying to feed her but don't like the amount of food that hits the floor. Should I be bringing a mat to put under the high chair or just tip extra well??

We are just starting to run into this - ds just turned 6 mo last week and we began BLW. He's a very enthusiastic eater, but still plays a lot! As luck would have it we went out to eat 4 times last week, lunches and dinners. Nobody was rude and we tried to clean up as best we can, and I think it helps if your super cute baby flirts with the waitress the whole time

From a former waitress, babies in restaurants (as long as their not screaming like crazy...though giggles and squeals are totally different!) are cute enough to compensate for the extra work in cleaning up after them. Many a time have I had to bust out the roller vacuum after a little one that decided the entire restaurant floor needed to be dressed in oyster crackers. Most of the waitstaff agreed. As long as the baby isn't causing a major disturbance like throwing food at people or dancing on the tables (yes, we've actually seen parents ENCOURAGING that sort of behavior), then a mess on the floor isn't too bad. It's even better if the parents are generous enough to try and clean up after themselves, but I've told parents not to worry about it. I'd get the mess. It's not really that big of a deal for most servers. If you tip well, total bonus!

From a parenting point of view, messes can be minimized by giving small manageable amounts at a time. I usually just put a bite-sized or grasping sized portion in front of my little guy and let him have at it. Once that's gone I give him a new one. This also has a huge benefit of making most of the pieces easy to spot when he drops them so I can pick them up and try and help out my server as much as possible. This seems to have really helped with minimizing the mess.

When my daughter was about to turn one year old, I brought a baby bib with me, few disposable mats under high chair and a few disposable table napkins just in case my daughter spits out her food. It feels awkward to have other servers watch our daughter while we ate but they were so kind enough to offer help with cleaning up because my daughter made them smile.